So come on, let’s leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God.-Hebrews 6:1-2 MSG

It’s hard for me to imagine trying to understand what the scriptures say without having experienced the revelation, or enlightenment. The words are there, but the meaning shifts dramatically, depending on your level of thinking. Once you have been enlightened, you cannot mentally walk away from what you’ve spiritually seen.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. -Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV

In conversations I’ve had, the best analogy, or tangible imagery, I can come up with is from the movie The Matrix. I haven’t seen that movie in several years, but the idea swirls around the question: “What is real?” Scripture refers to “the world” and “the truth.” In other words: mortal/immortal; fake/real; temporal/eternal; physical/metaphysical.

There is a separation between what is real and what is experienced. What is real is where life is. What is experienced is the fabric through which truth seeps. If you focus on the mesh of understanding or the method of exposure, then you will not see the message or the mystery. An eternal, spiritual Source of truth is pressing in on the spirit within and the only thing standing in the way is the layer of flesh, by which all experience is translated and filtered. Flesh is the problem. That’s why we are to “lean not on [our] own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).”

Temporal cannot understand what is eternal. However, what is eternal can understand what is temporal and knows enough to not spend any time or effort on it.

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.-Colossians 3:1-2 MSG

Your experience is not the end all of understanding. It is the avenue by which what, or better: Who, is to be understood as truth makes its way into your spirit. Experience alters perspective and perspective is the goal, not the experience. You must be able to think abstractly and Jesus is the key to understanding. Once you have tasted the revelation, you are compelled to act within that realm, on that ground, from that perspective, to that lack of beginning and end (as opposed to “that end”).

You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.-Colossians 3:9-11 MSG

All I am trying to do is appeal to the spiritual part of you that longs to hear something that matters. I am speaking to the part of you that is longing for a deeper walk, a spiritual awakening of which you can never grow tired. This exists.

We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. …The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along.-1 Corinthians 2:6-7; 10 MSG

If this has whet your appetite, read all of Colossians 3 and all of 1 Corinthians 2. Good luck stopping there. I had to force myself to not quote the whole thing here.

47739 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.graceisforsinners.com%2Fwhat-is-real%2Fwhat+is+real%3F2013-02-05+15%3A07%3A34Serena+Woodshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.graceisforsinners.com%2F%3Fp%3D4773 on “what is real?”

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

Just popped into your blog through a friend's blog. This is the first post I've read of yours, but I had to comment because I just finished reading Michel de Montaigne's essay "In Defense of Raymond Sebond", which, well– it's long, but man, is it worth it. Addresses perception, knowledge, revelation– mind-blowing, and delightful.
My recent post The Category of Bad

9Victora said at 8:51 pm on March 16th, 2013:

Serena,
I've been reading your posts for a while now, and have never commented. I just want you to know that your honesty, bravery, and willingness to be vulnerable in front of both the kind and the vultures are such rare and amazing qualities. No matter what judgement you still are facing from people, please know that you affect so many lives so deeply and I for one am very grateful. Thank you so much.